AutoLocation Tasker plug-in brings new Google location features to Tasker

A few weeks ago, Google announced the availability of some new location APIs for Android, allowing developers to access various location based information. Quickly after that, Auto*-developer joaomgcd released the beta version of a new Tasker plug-in to utilize those new features in Tasker, and the plug-in is now out of beta and available on Google Play.

AutoLocation currently works with geofencing and activities. Geofencing is similar to the location context in Tasker, allowing you to create profiles based on your location, but it uses the new APIs which are more efficient than the old ones that Tasker use, which are infamous for draining battery and being inaccurate. I have a feeling that there are a lot of location profiles out there that will be updated in the coming days as the word of AutoLocation spreads, and it’s always nice to see a better way of doing something that a lot of people use.

The activity feature taps into the Activity Recognition API and allows Tasker to act based on what activity you’re doing. This is a new feature that can detect whether you’re walking, in a vehicle, cycling, standing still, or tilting the device. This should open up a ton of a new options to Tasker users, as car modes have always been one of the most popular uses for Tasker out there, and the driving activity allows that kind of Tasker creation to be set up in new ways. Walking and cycling should also be very useful, and the various options available in AutoLocation should help limit issues.

I haven’t looked into the plug-in yet myself, but might test out the geofencing option to see if that’s accurate enough to have some fun with.

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About the Author

Andreas Ødegård was an associate editor at Pocketables. He’s more interested in aftermarket (and user created) software and hardware than chasing the latest gadgets and tends to stick with his choice of device for a long time as a result of that. Currently that includes an iPad mini and a Samsung Galaxy S II.

Can’t seem to get the Activity monitoring to work. A simple task like open an app when I’m in vehicle or standing still doesn’t trigger.

Benjamin Petersen

Hi,

Activation and Geofence is deactivated as default. – You need to creat a boot task that starts both services.

Redwan

I found that Geofence monitoring works right out of the box (with not-so-good accuracy even with large radii), but none of the Activity monitoring works at all.

Sunil Kolambkar

This actually can be use as life saving, specially during driving.

If speed is above a certain limit, Tasker then can trigger alert, blink color (like flashlight) or even send SMS to others.

Even during driving halts, it can auto send GPS location to let someone know that person is on road but not moving.

Good to have this..

Jeremy Kane

Oddly enough, I published a Locale plug-in (which does work with Tasker) about 3 days ago that does the Activity Detection part. It’s meant to be a simpler “choose which activity you want to trigger the condition” setup than AutoLocation’s is, and doesn’t have any GeoFencing.

What I do that is (I think) different, besides simplifying the options, is I have built algorithms to filter out false positives, false negatives, and bouncing from one activity to another – which Google Play Services seems to do a lot at the moment. I’d actually been building a similar style plug-in even before they announced the Activity Recognition pieces, so I was already thinking about how to filter bad sensor data when I changed course to work with their services, so I think it’s pretty good – and I’m working to make it even better.

I won’t post a link to the Play Store listing here, cause that doesn’t seem right – but if you want to try an alternative approach for Activity recognition, search for “Locale Movement Detection” in the play store, and let me know what you think!

Michael Venetiaan

Hi Andreas! I was wondering if you could help me out with something I want to get done in Tasker.

I want to use Autolocation to help me to track my bikeride home from work with endomondo.

I could use leaving a certain state (leaving %STATE – Work) together with detecting wether I’m biking to fire up endomondo. Arriving home would end the task (entering %STATE – Home).
But I don’t really get how to set up the bikedetection part.